It must be pretty encouraging when your début album sells 20,000 copies by just word of mouth. Jean-Christophe Le Saout may have a name to make English-speakers cough up feathers, but his Wax Tailor project seems to have seduced the masses without even trying. It all started with a little e.p. Called "Lost The Way" which had journalists falling over themselves to praise its new take on orchestral hip-hop. A second disc followed, similarly adored, and then things just blew up with the release of the album, "Tales Of The Forgotten Melodies". All of a sudden, Wax Tailor was doing 60-date tours and playing with The Herbaliser, Coldcut and DJ Krush. The following album "Hope & Sorrow" featured a collaboration with Ursula Rucker, was mastered in New York by the legendary Tom Coyne (De La Soul, Jamiroquai, Sade, DJ Shadow) and released worldwide. 60-date tours now looked like child's play compared with the 200-date marathon he embarked upon, part of which with seasoned DJ/artiste RJD2. Calling Wax Tailor's music trip hop or abstract hip hop doesn't do it justice, although both have undeniably played their part in his musical education. He's completely unfazed by crossing boundaries and inventing his own style between hope and suffering, mixing soul, jazz, funk, vocals, scratches, flutes, strings... I suppose you could just call it cinematic. We call it inspired. New album due in 2009.